Clan Spotlight: _BAD_ 9/16/2013
Дата: 16.09.2013 20:19:51
Hypnotik: This week we shine the light on [_BAD_],
The Brotherhood Armored Division. You may recognize these heavy
hitters as part of that big purple blob that is a mainstay of the
Clan Wars map, but they’ll be happy to tell you that they are just
one of the divisions that make up the conglomerate known as The
Burning Legion. Read on to see how these great players and true
masters of diplomacy can help you and your clan to excel!
BadLion- Commander of BAD. I oversee pretty much all the functions they mentioned including recruiting, etc. I am also one of the senior leaders of the Burning Legion which includes the Clans [HAVOK] and [_UF_] Unforgiven.
ThatDarnEwok- Field Commander.
CallmeDash- Deputy Commander with BAD. I take care of IT infrastructure, communications and treasury.
theonesavior- Deputy Commander of BAD and in charge of Field Commanders.
watson1002- I do the diplomacy for Legion and BAD. My role is I look at more of the long term of the metagame and look towards the future of where we are going to be; what we are going to do, who we are going to be friends with, what's our best positioning on the maps and things like that.
AMartin223- I used to be a Field Commander in BAD and I would run battles. Then I lost a pretty ugly one and gave up on that but I have been running a tournament team, The Cunninghams, which is a lot of admin work basically and little bit of fun.
How would you best describe your clan? BadLion- Well for the most part, we are in it to have fun, but also to be very competitive at the same time. BAD actually stands for "The Brotherhood Armored Division," and that word "brotherhood" we take very seriously. We tend to be focused around having a clan that works together. Our clan specifically was built to be highly competitive, but very social at the same time. The metagame is a big part of what we do -- it encompasses lots of things from posting ability, to diplomacy, to gameplay, to actual friendships and personal relationships. The metagame in World of Tanks is huge and encompasses many different aspects. If you are good at one aspect but you suck at another, you can pretty much write yourselves off. But if you are good at diplomacy, if you are good at fighting, and if you are good at personal relationships, then it's pretty much a win-win.
Which is more important: skill or diplomacy? AMartin223- I think knowing your skill level is more important than where your skill actually is. Your skill level gets you a certain level of respect with your opponents, then what you do with it defines where you are on the map.
theonesavior- They definitely complement each other to where I'd say it is almost split even. Whereas if you are a really good fighter but metagame isn't that great or you don't build relationships very well. you can easily lose by being outnumbered by clans chipping you every night and you get exhausted. That is a huge aspect of the game. And then the other way around: if you are really good at building relationships but you just can't back it up on the field, that is also another inevitable outcome.
AMartin223- Also, FC skills are incredibly more important than individual player skill. There are different brackets of player skill. I mean, if you have the worst possible players, there is only so much you can do. But within a skill bracket that is very wide, the FC can make a huge difference. If you have a player who wins more pub matches than they lose, you can do pretty much anything.
What does it take to make a great FC? theonesavior- Every now and then you get an FC who -- and mind you, the ones who do this don't last very long -- blames the players. "The players screwed this up," or "These guys went around a corner when they shouldn't have," but in reality, it all falls back on the FC. If something doesn't go right, it is 99% due to a lack of preparation or oversight.
ThatDarnEwok- It really starts at the platoon level. A good Field Commander will go into TeamSpeak, find their players, and platoon with the tier X’s to gauge how they play and what play style they have. Then that Field Commander can then move to Tank Companies and judge that player in a team setting. When you take that player into the field, you know exactly what kind of role he will fulfill and how well he will do it without even having to worry about it. That is what a great field commander will look into.
theonesavior- Another thing that is huge: You can be a great FC, call really well and come up with good strats, but if you have a one-track mind -- like you only run no-arty or always run a ton of mediums, etc. -- then a lack of imagination will always penalize you. No matter what kind of strategy you run and no matter how good it is, every strat can be easily countered, and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see a predictable FC on the other side of the field. Sure, you never communicate with this guy, maybe all you see of him is in Clan Wars, but if that guy sees a trend, you will get crushed every time. The key is to not be predictable.
BadLion- Field Commanders need to be very map-aware. They need to understand what is going on at any time. They need to be able to read what the other team is doing by scouting and understand the map as a whole -- understanding where most teams will go to. You need to be very aware of tactics on that map, learning those maps and be map-aware in-game. Pay attention to that mini-map.
AMartin223- After a match, you should be able to pinpoint exactly why one side won and one side lost with your pub matches and in Clan Wars. If you can't figure out why you lost, not just “oh my players sucked” that is very rarely the only issue. There are ton of different reasons why you lost and there is always something you could have done differently to make a win. You have to be able to recognize that every time.
ThatDarnEwok- From my point of view, we often see the Field Commanders start doing administrative work by putting the teams together pre-game. You can also see us running training battles, and training and thinking sessions the day before about what we are doing. I also noticed a bunch of Field Commanders start dabbling in training companies and tournaments, like myself. So, it kind of branches off from Field Commander to different roles.
Do you have advice for a clan struggling to find their place on the map? watson1002- Ask people. Ask people what is going on. Find out what the new trend is. Find out what the latest quirk is with a recent patch. Find out who's in power. Find other clans that are looking for help and band together. It is a big game, and there are many, many aspects to it. A ton of people don't realize that. There is a lot of information out there, but no one knows how to ascertain all of it. No one can get all that information bottled up.
BadLion- As a clan commander, I would say it's surrounding yourself with the right people to help you do the job you need to do. Find the right people you can trust, and then go from there to expand into the metagame, building up your fighting core, your field command staff, and your players. One thing about BAD in particular: yeah, we do look at stats, but one of the biggest things is, are you a fit with the clan? Does your personality mesh with our clans? Because if you are not a fit, it's just not going to work for us or you.
Describe the recruiting process for BAD. BadLion- Basically it starts with contact. They go to our website and fill out the application, then join TeamSpeak immediately. They are talked to by the recruiters to check out their personality, to see how they are, what kind of fit they would be. At that point, once everything has been talked about (their stats are gone over, and they understand what we are about, what the legion is about, what BAD is about), we take them and actually platoon with them, putting them through the paces. Our recruiters tell them, "Hey, I need you to do this, blah blah blah," and figure out their skill level to see if they need any work. At that point, if they pass all of our requirements, they are good to go once we have an opening.
theonesavior- One common trait I see in a lot of the new members that become very successful very quickly and become integral members of the team, is that it really is the ones who are very outgoing. When you are new to a clan, a lot of people would be timid about joining a platoon channel with two people in it that you just have no clue who they are. The people who are able to hop into a new scenario and just "sink or swim" are the ones who do really well; the ones who take those little leaps and aren't afraid to meet new people and get really exposed really quickly.
What is the advantage of being part of the Burning Legion as opposed to just allying with other clans? Do you have issues with jealousy? BadLion- Oh, absolutely. It has happened before. Unfortunately, it does happen with other clans, and a lot of time people just don't understand, but in the end, it is about the greater good of alliance. Doesn't matter what it is, it's about the greater good. It's about everyone working together. We have three clans that are Clan Wars clans, and all three of them work together as one big team.
watson1002- Yeah. You are working towards that endgame, the metagame. If you look at the North America map, you have Havok and BAD right together, right? If you look at some of the clans that are around us, they are these big powerful clans. We have another clan called Unforgiven; they are up in the north. My talking with some of the clans around them is helping them to get battles with the right people and the right clans, and to keep them on the map so that they can keep building. The clans have to build all the time; you can't be stagnant. They are building and they are getting better. It has to be a continuously improving project, basically.
AMartin223- Speaking to that, part of the success of the legion is shown in the fact there is conflict between clans, and clans leave. You've built them up so far that they want be on their own. It is like children growing up.
Do you think the clans that left just outgrew the system? BadLion- We have had several instances of that, where clans that were Legion clans decided to go out on their own and do their own thing. They are all very successful and they are all great clans, so we are very proud of what they have accomplished. I personally think it was just that they outgrew. The clans just did not want to be under one banner. They wanted to get out there and make their own decisions and do what they wanted to do for themselves, and not say, "Oh well, I have to go support so-and-so because we are part of the same group." Now they can go out and do what they need to do for their members.
Why did your clan stick around for so long? What prevented the Burning Legion from breaking into many smaller clans? BadLion- I would say that the biggest reason would probably be me. Myself and callmesarge from Havok go way back to 2011 when I was Deputy Commander in Havok. I am pretty much dedicated to what we have built as far as the Legion, and I don't see BAD ever separating from that.
ThatDarnEwok- As long as they are willing to wear that Legion tag next to their name, I am willing to stand by them through thick and thin. I'm with Lion.
watson1002- The aspect that the Legion represents is a legion. No one single team is the Legion. Teams can come and go, but as long there is a core group of teams, there will always be a Legion. If BAD lost 60 members tomorrow, there would still be a Legion. We'd rebuild, and it would take time, but there would still be a Legion.
theonesavior- That's the thing, it is not a real struggle when people up and quit because in reality, the principle around the Legion -- like Ewok said, sticking it through thick and thin -- that mentality is something that can't be forced. If the clan's culture changes and they are not in it to win it for the Legion, you don't want to force that mentality, because you want people to wantto be there. You want the people standing next to you to want to stand next to you and work together towards that common goal of the Legion. Whether it's five clans doing it or three, it doesn't really matter so long as everyone wants to be there.
What do you consider your clan's biggest accomplishment? BadLion- I think our biggest would be ROTA, we finished with a win for the "Mile High Ranger" medal. We ended up with about 350,000 gold for that, and then yeah, the Campaign was also a big accomplishment. Also, having AMartin223's team in Vegas was huge, we're very proud of them for that.
AMartin223- The biggest thing for me was the fights back during the "Doughnut War" -- those were the most fun I've had in Clan Wars.
watson1002- One of the biggest feats we had was getting all five of the Legion clans into the top 30. (Editor’s Note: TBL at this time also included [NOVAC] and [HAV0K], now known as [VILIN]).
BadLion- That's true. Our goal from the start was just to finish in the top 30, and anything above that we were very happy with, but we had help from some of our sister clans during the whole campaign. We all worked together, and it worked out very well. People like Hav0k helped tremendously, they were a great asset, [_UF_] was a great asset, some of our neighbors around us... great assets. We didn't plan on finishing that high.
theonesavior- One thing that as a field commander I was really impressed with was during the whole Purple Dawn thing. The thing we were talking about with CR/D -- when that was hitting the fan, we were actually fielding a stupid amount of people every night. We were getting chipped, it was going on for a month and a half, but everyone still stood strong and logged on. We were able to field three teams a night on average, up to four or even five one or two times. Everyone stuck it through and stayed tough even though we had a whole bunch of clans beating on us.
CallmeDash- I think at one stage we ended up fielding five teams in a single time slot.
With such a large group, what kind of process does your clan go through to get ready for these battles? ThatDarnEwok- I coordinate with watson1002 and Lion, to try to get an idea of what we're doing the next day. They'd tell me "between 4-5 battles," I'd look at our attendance and see that we had an average attendance of 60+ players, then go to my own personal spreadsheet and map out how many battles each player has had, give priority to low-battle players, and send people around. It got to the point where we had some players coming in late in Phase II of the Campaign, so I was triple-battling people at one point, setting up offsets by a minute. People would go in with one tank, come out immediately and go into a second battle, to make sure they'd get that 10-battle minimum for the whole campaign, plus five for that stage. I was doing that with 70+ players for the campaign.
AMartin223- For when we have actual fights, you just prioritize the battles. The FC of each battle will pull his team, then the next priority FC will pull his players.
theonesavior- It's usually pretty straightforward too. A lot of the FCs have their preference for what maps and opponents they like. Sometimes you're lucky and the stars will align and the right people log on to the right battles on the right maps against the right people, and you almost don't have to say anything. They all kind of know who's picking first and what strats they're going to run, almost the night before.
What do you find are the most effective tanks in Clan Wars? theonesavior- Personally, it's almost a hands-down: the BatChatsare really good, and the T-62Asare fantastic. It's probably one of the best well-rounded tanks in the game, in terms of ability to stand their ground and do damage, and also spot. They're very versatile. Honestly, I saw things really kick up and change when the T57shit the Clan Wars field. Based on my battles against different opponents, that's the tank that was fielded when you really needed the win. We'd go against clans that would sometimes field nine or ten T57s. The burst damage, the reload, the decent balancing, their small profile, decent speed -- once you get a good group of guys focus-firing with T57s, that's hard to beat.
AMartin223- There's a lot of TD meta too right now. Tier X has a lot of options up there. It's more about what tanks you can't bring.
theonesavior- The health pool is always an advantage. When you see a team with a big health advantage, I wouldn't say you get worried, but you have to start thinking about how you'll whittle down their health pool, if you're more medium-heavy and they have a bunch of E-100sand IS-4s. You just have to be more tactical about how you're going to skin this animal, because when you're dealing with a larger health pool, you really have to get that damage ratio through the roof. I guess that's kind of the only situation where I might start sweating a little bit. We'd been fielding typically 3-4 artillery before 8.6, now I'm finding maybe 1-2 depending on the map.
Which ones do you still find viable? BadLion- [Object] 261.
theonesavior- M53/55.
That's a tier IX. What makes you take that over the tier X T92?
theonesavior- Reload, accuracy, splash is about the same, and a large arc.
BadLion- It's just a much better tank. You can put vents on that thing with Cola, it's just great.
AMartin223- It's faster.
Do you guys have a particular map you like? And what tanks do you like for these maps? watson1002- I think you need to take Highway, and delete it.
theonesavior- The best weapon for Highway is diplo.
BadLion- It used to be at one time that I had _BAD_ in an area where Highway was a lot of our maps. I have since moved BAD up to where we can get onto Kareliaand Steppesand get away from Highway. We want nothing to do with Highway.
theonesavior– With the attacking team on Highway, the basic rules of wars that have been in place for thousands of years - high ground is an advantage. When you start out at the bottom of a hill, that's tough.
BadLion- Strats and tanks are very map dependent. On most strats though, you'll see T57s, T110E5s, Foch 155s, T62As and BatChats.
AMartin223- 268salso, maybe a Leo.
ThatDarnEwok- You'll see a good balance between speed tanks and heavy tanks on maps if it's enclosed. You'll see a lot more 57s or E5s than you'll see speed tanks. If it's open like Highway, you'll definitely see a large majority of BatChats/T62As running around with arty support. It really depends on what the tanks' strengths are and what you want them to do.
What's something you did that you regret? BadLion- I would say some diplomatic issues we had not too long ago. The Legion grew really large really quick, and we got a taste of the big leagues. We learned some lessons because we got schooled pretty quickly on being humble. I would say we had some diplomatic snafus that humbled us after a while.
watson1002- It's the metagame that you have to look at. It's not just about fighting battles and being able to back up what you talk about; you've got to win in the forums, too. You also have to win the CR/D game. If you can't win it, at least be on parity. If you're not, you'll end up with 42 clans coming to get you, just because there's one clan on there that played the metagame a little bit better than you did. That's what happened, and that's what Lion is talking about. We got outplayed, outsmarted, outwitted by two clans.
BadLion- It's not about the clans in particular, but about how you get to a point where you get a little cocky, you know, you get that ego up there (at one time we controlled more than half of the NA map), and it just got out of hand and we made some mistakes diplomatically. I regret harming some of the relationships that were harmed because they thought the Legion is out of control. They put us in check quick.
watson1002- And it was because of CR/D. We didn't lose on the field and we didn't lose because we didn't have enough players or teams to field. We lost because we couldn't compete with the game that was being played in CR/D.
If you could choose one objective for campaign 2, what would you go with? AMartin223- Most of the things can be won through rigging, which really sucks, so it would have to be something straightforward. "Most gold income" is a good one because it's easy to do. "Most enemy chips burned" might be riggable, but also cool. "Most simultaneous battles won" or something, but that's riggable too. It's tough because you can break a lot of things.
BadLion- I'm with Martin as well, I think "most battles won," to force people to be able to fight. However there is a way around it: if you want to, you can set up with neighbors and just go back and forth. But that would be something I'd look at; number of battles won as a stage.
ThatDarnEwok- I like King of the Hill. I think we should go with key provinces like last time, like Bighorn. We had very good fights with our friends [CAZA] on Karelia. I like King of the Hill, and a higher reward for those key provinces.
theonesavior- One I thought would be pretty cool, because it would be such a huge craze and have variety, it'd be hard to rig: the team that has the biggest variety of provinces. Forcing them to jump all over the map would be pretty cool.
watson1002- It's not so much of a campaign, but a strategic thinking, a deeper thinking, would be to not release what's happening. The day before, or six hours, or whatever you can do, release the information then. Because with some of the times that we went into these stages of the campaign, we had plans in place a week before. We were working towards it from the diplo, the tanks, our position on the map. But to go into something almost totally blind.
BadLion- It's like Clan Wars: you never know what to expect. You don't know who's going to chip you that day, you don't know who will attack you, so you can't plan on it. That's kind of what he's getting at. Just make it so nobody knows what's going to happen, it just happens.
watson1002- Otherwise the endgame, like in the last campaign, was already set by the second feature of the campaign. There were a few twists and turns, but not many.
BadLion- The easiest way to put it is that the metagame actually dictated the outcome of the first campaign, for the large part.
BadLion- Commander of BAD. I oversee pretty much all the functions they mentioned including recruiting, etc. I am also one of the senior leaders of the Burning Legion which includes the Clans [HAVOK] and [_UF_] Unforgiven.
ThatDarnEwok- Field Commander.
CallmeDash- Deputy Commander with BAD. I take care of IT infrastructure, communications and treasury.
theonesavior- Deputy Commander of BAD and in charge of Field Commanders.
watson1002- I do the diplomacy for Legion and BAD. My role is I look at more of the long term of the metagame and look towards the future of where we are going to be; what we are going to do, who we are going to be friends with, what's our best positioning on the maps and things like that.
AMartin223- I used to be a Field Commander in BAD and I would run battles. Then I lost a pretty ugly one and gave up on that but I have been running a tournament team, The Cunninghams, which is a lot of admin work basically and little bit of fun.
How would you best describe your clan? BadLion- Well for the most part, we are in it to have fun, but also to be very competitive at the same time. BAD actually stands for "The Brotherhood Armored Division," and that word "brotherhood" we take very seriously. We tend to be focused around having a clan that works together. Our clan specifically was built to be highly competitive, but very social at the same time. The metagame is a big part of what we do -- it encompasses lots of things from posting ability, to diplomacy, to gameplay, to actual friendships and personal relationships. The metagame in World of Tanks is huge and encompasses many different aspects. If you are good at one aspect but you suck at another, you can pretty much write yourselves off. But if you are good at diplomacy, if you are good at fighting, and if you are good at personal relationships, then it's pretty much a win-win.
Which is more important: skill or diplomacy? AMartin223- I think knowing your skill level is more important than where your skill actually is. Your skill level gets you a certain level of respect with your opponents, then what you do with it defines where you are on the map.
theonesavior- They definitely complement each other to where I'd say it is almost split even. Whereas if you are a really good fighter but metagame isn't that great or you don't build relationships very well. you can easily lose by being outnumbered by clans chipping you every night and you get exhausted. That is a huge aspect of the game. And then the other way around: if you are really good at building relationships but you just can't back it up on the field, that is also another inevitable outcome.
AMartin223- Also, FC skills are incredibly more important than individual player skill. There are different brackets of player skill. I mean, if you have the worst possible players, there is only so much you can do. But within a skill bracket that is very wide, the FC can make a huge difference. If you have a player who wins more pub matches than they lose, you can do pretty much anything.
What does it take to make a great FC? theonesavior- Every now and then you get an FC who -- and mind you, the ones who do this don't last very long -- blames the players. "The players screwed this up," or "These guys went around a corner when they shouldn't have," but in reality, it all falls back on the FC. If something doesn't go right, it is 99% due to a lack of preparation or oversight.
ThatDarnEwok- It really starts at the platoon level. A good Field Commander will go into TeamSpeak, find their players, and platoon with the tier X’s to gauge how they play and what play style they have. Then that Field Commander can then move to Tank Companies and judge that player in a team setting. When you take that player into the field, you know exactly what kind of role he will fulfill and how well he will do it without even having to worry about it. That is what a great field commander will look into.
theonesavior- Another thing that is huge: You can be a great FC, call really well and come up with good strats, but if you have a one-track mind -- like you only run no-arty or always run a ton of mediums, etc. -- then a lack of imagination will always penalize you. No matter what kind of strategy you run and no matter how good it is, every strat can be easily countered, and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see a predictable FC on the other side of the field. Sure, you never communicate with this guy, maybe all you see of him is in Clan Wars, but if that guy sees a trend, you will get crushed every time. The key is to not be predictable.
BadLion- Field Commanders need to be very map-aware. They need to understand what is going on at any time. They need to be able to read what the other team is doing by scouting and understand the map as a whole -- understanding where most teams will go to. You need to be very aware of tactics on that map, learning those maps and be map-aware in-game. Pay attention to that mini-map.
AMartin223- After a match, you should be able to pinpoint exactly why one side won and one side lost with your pub matches and in Clan Wars. If you can't figure out why you lost, not just “oh my players sucked” that is very rarely the only issue. There are ton of different reasons why you lost and there is always something you could have done differently to make a win. You have to be able to recognize that every time.
ThatDarnEwok- From my point of view, we often see the Field Commanders start doing administrative work by putting the teams together pre-game. You can also see us running training battles, and training and thinking sessions the day before about what we are doing. I also noticed a bunch of Field Commanders start dabbling in training companies and tournaments, like myself. So, it kind of branches off from Field Commander to different roles.
Do you have advice for a clan struggling to find their place on the map? watson1002- Ask people. Ask people what is going on. Find out what the new trend is. Find out what the latest quirk is with a recent patch. Find out who's in power. Find other clans that are looking for help and band together. It is a big game, and there are many, many aspects to it. A ton of people don't realize that. There is a lot of information out there, but no one knows how to ascertain all of it. No one can get all that information bottled up.
BadLion- As a clan commander, I would say it's surrounding yourself with the right people to help you do the job you need to do. Find the right people you can trust, and then go from there to expand into the metagame, building up your fighting core, your field command staff, and your players. One thing about BAD in particular: yeah, we do look at stats, but one of the biggest things is, are you a fit with the clan? Does your personality mesh with our clans? Because if you are not a fit, it's just not going to work for us or you.
Describe the recruiting process for BAD. BadLion- Basically it starts with contact. They go to our website and fill out the application, then join TeamSpeak immediately. They are talked to by the recruiters to check out their personality, to see how they are, what kind of fit they would be. At that point, once everything has been talked about (their stats are gone over, and they understand what we are about, what the legion is about, what BAD is about), we take them and actually platoon with them, putting them through the paces. Our recruiters tell them, "Hey, I need you to do this, blah blah blah," and figure out their skill level to see if they need any work. At that point, if they pass all of our requirements, they are good to go once we have an opening.
theonesavior- One common trait I see in a lot of the new members that become very successful very quickly and become integral members of the team, is that it really is the ones who are very outgoing. When you are new to a clan, a lot of people would be timid about joining a platoon channel with two people in it that you just have no clue who they are. The people who are able to hop into a new scenario and just "sink or swim" are the ones who do really well; the ones who take those little leaps and aren't afraid to meet new people and get really exposed really quickly.
What is the advantage of being part of the Burning Legion as opposed to just allying with other clans? Do you have issues with jealousy? BadLion- Oh, absolutely. It has happened before. Unfortunately, it does happen with other clans, and a lot of time people just don't understand, but in the end, it is about the greater good of alliance. Doesn't matter what it is, it's about the greater good. It's about everyone working together. We have three clans that are Clan Wars clans, and all three of them work together as one big team.
watson1002- Yeah. You are working towards that endgame, the metagame. If you look at the North America map, you have Havok and BAD right together, right? If you look at some of the clans that are around us, they are these big powerful clans. We have another clan called Unforgiven; they are up in the north. My talking with some of the clans around them is helping them to get battles with the right people and the right clans, and to keep them on the map so that they can keep building. The clans have to build all the time; you can't be stagnant. They are building and they are getting better. It has to be a continuously improving project, basically.
AMartin223- Speaking to that, part of the success of the legion is shown in the fact there is conflict between clans, and clans leave. You've built them up so far that they want be on their own. It is like children growing up.
Do you think the clans that left just outgrew the system? BadLion- We have had several instances of that, where clans that were Legion clans decided to go out on their own and do their own thing. They are all very successful and they are all great clans, so we are very proud of what they have accomplished. I personally think it was just that they outgrew. The clans just did not want to be under one banner. They wanted to get out there and make their own decisions and do what they wanted to do for themselves, and not say, "Oh well, I have to go support so-and-so because we are part of the same group." Now they can go out and do what they need to do for their members.
Why did your clan stick around for so long? What prevented the Burning Legion from breaking into many smaller clans? BadLion- I would say that the biggest reason would probably be me. Myself and callmesarge from Havok go way back to 2011 when I was Deputy Commander in Havok. I am pretty much dedicated to what we have built as far as the Legion, and I don't see BAD ever separating from that.
ThatDarnEwok- As long as they are willing to wear that Legion tag next to their name, I am willing to stand by them through thick and thin. I'm with Lion.
watson1002- The aspect that the Legion represents is a legion. No one single team is the Legion. Teams can come and go, but as long there is a core group of teams, there will always be a Legion. If BAD lost 60 members tomorrow, there would still be a Legion. We'd rebuild, and it would take time, but there would still be a Legion.
theonesavior- That's the thing, it is not a real struggle when people up and quit because in reality, the principle around the Legion -- like Ewok said, sticking it through thick and thin -- that mentality is something that can't be forced. If the clan's culture changes and they are not in it to win it for the Legion, you don't want to force that mentality, because you want people to wantto be there. You want the people standing next to you to want to stand next to you and work together towards that common goal of the Legion. Whether it's five clans doing it or three, it doesn't really matter so long as everyone wants to be there.
What do you consider your clan's biggest accomplishment? BadLion- I think our biggest would be ROTA, we finished with a win for the "Mile High Ranger" medal. We ended up with about 350,000 gold for that, and then yeah, the Campaign was also a big accomplishment. Also, having AMartin223's team in Vegas was huge, we're very proud of them for that.
AMartin223- The biggest thing for me was the fights back during the "Doughnut War" -- those were the most fun I've had in Clan Wars.
watson1002- One of the biggest feats we had was getting all five of the Legion clans into the top 30. (Editor’s Note: TBL at this time also included [NOVAC] and [HAV0K], now known as [VILIN]).
BadLion- That's true. Our goal from the start was just to finish in the top 30, and anything above that we were very happy with, but we had help from some of our sister clans during the whole campaign. We all worked together, and it worked out very well. People like Hav0k helped tremendously, they were a great asset, [_UF_] was a great asset, some of our neighbors around us... great assets. We didn't plan on finishing that high.
theonesavior- One thing that as a field commander I was really impressed with was during the whole Purple Dawn thing. The thing we were talking about with CR/D -- when that was hitting the fan, we were actually fielding a stupid amount of people every night. We were getting chipped, it was going on for a month and a half, but everyone still stood strong and logged on. We were able to field three teams a night on average, up to four or even five one or two times. Everyone stuck it through and stayed tough even though we had a whole bunch of clans beating on us.
CallmeDash- I think at one stage we ended up fielding five teams in a single time slot.
With such a large group, what kind of process does your clan go through to get ready for these battles? ThatDarnEwok- I coordinate with watson1002 and Lion, to try to get an idea of what we're doing the next day. They'd tell me "between 4-5 battles," I'd look at our attendance and see that we had an average attendance of 60+ players, then go to my own personal spreadsheet and map out how many battles each player has had, give priority to low-battle players, and send people around. It got to the point where we had some players coming in late in Phase II of the Campaign, so I was triple-battling people at one point, setting up offsets by a minute. People would go in with one tank, come out immediately and go into a second battle, to make sure they'd get that 10-battle minimum for the whole campaign, plus five for that stage. I was doing that with 70+ players for the campaign.
AMartin223- For when we have actual fights, you just prioritize the battles. The FC of each battle will pull his team, then the next priority FC will pull his players.
theonesavior- It's usually pretty straightforward too. A lot of the FCs have their preference for what maps and opponents they like. Sometimes you're lucky and the stars will align and the right people log on to the right battles on the right maps against the right people, and you almost don't have to say anything. They all kind of know who's picking first and what strats they're going to run, almost the night before.
What do you find are the most effective tanks in Clan Wars? theonesavior- Personally, it's almost a hands-down: the BatChatsare really good, and the T-62Asare fantastic. It's probably one of the best well-rounded tanks in the game, in terms of ability to stand their ground and do damage, and also spot. They're very versatile. Honestly, I saw things really kick up and change when the T57shit the Clan Wars field. Based on my battles against different opponents, that's the tank that was fielded when you really needed the win. We'd go against clans that would sometimes field nine or ten T57s. The burst damage, the reload, the decent balancing, their small profile, decent speed -- once you get a good group of guys focus-firing with T57s, that's hard to beat.
AMartin223- There's a lot of TD meta too right now. Tier X has a lot of options up there. It's more about what tanks you can't bring.
theonesavior- The health pool is always an advantage. When you see a team with a big health advantage, I wouldn't say you get worried, but you have to start thinking about how you'll whittle down their health pool, if you're more medium-heavy and they have a bunch of E-100sand IS-4s. You just have to be more tactical about how you're going to skin this animal, because when you're dealing with a larger health pool, you really have to get that damage ratio through the roof. I guess that's kind of the only situation where I might start sweating a little bit. We'd been fielding typically 3-4 artillery before 8.6, now I'm finding maybe 1-2 depending on the map.
Which ones do you still find viable? BadLion- [Object] 261.
theonesavior- M53/55.
That's a tier IX. What makes you take that over the tier X T92?
theonesavior- Reload, accuracy, splash is about the same, and a large arc.
BadLion- It's just a much better tank. You can put vents on that thing with Cola, it's just great.
AMartin223- It's faster.
Do you guys have a particular map you like? And what tanks do you like for these maps? watson1002- I think you need to take Highway, and delete it.
theonesavior- The best weapon for Highway is diplo.
BadLion- It used to be at one time that I had _BAD_ in an area where Highway was a lot of our maps. I have since moved BAD up to where we can get onto Kareliaand Steppesand get away from Highway. We want nothing to do with Highway.
theonesavior– With the attacking team on Highway, the basic rules of wars that have been in place for thousands of years - high ground is an advantage. When you start out at the bottom of a hill, that's tough.
BadLion- Strats and tanks are very map dependent. On most strats though, you'll see T57s, T110E5s, Foch 155s, T62As and BatChats.
AMartin223- 268salso, maybe a Leo.
ThatDarnEwok- You'll see a good balance between speed tanks and heavy tanks on maps if it's enclosed. You'll see a lot more 57s or E5s than you'll see speed tanks. If it's open like Highway, you'll definitely see a large majority of BatChats/T62As running around with arty support. It really depends on what the tanks' strengths are and what you want them to do.
What's something you did that you regret? BadLion- I would say some diplomatic issues we had not too long ago. The Legion grew really large really quick, and we got a taste of the big leagues. We learned some lessons because we got schooled pretty quickly on being humble. I would say we had some diplomatic snafus that humbled us after a while.
watson1002- It's the metagame that you have to look at. It's not just about fighting battles and being able to back up what you talk about; you've got to win in the forums, too. You also have to win the CR/D game. If you can't win it, at least be on parity. If you're not, you'll end up with 42 clans coming to get you, just because there's one clan on there that played the metagame a little bit better than you did. That's what happened, and that's what Lion is talking about. We got outplayed, outsmarted, outwitted by two clans.
BadLion- It's not about the clans in particular, but about how you get to a point where you get a little cocky, you know, you get that ego up there (at one time we controlled more than half of the NA map), and it just got out of hand and we made some mistakes diplomatically. I regret harming some of the relationships that were harmed because they thought the Legion is out of control. They put us in check quick.
watson1002- And it was because of CR/D. We didn't lose on the field and we didn't lose because we didn't have enough players or teams to field. We lost because we couldn't compete with the game that was being played in CR/D.
If you could choose one objective for campaign 2, what would you go with? AMartin223- Most of the things can be won through rigging, which really sucks, so it would have to be something straightforward. "Most gold income" is a good one because it's easy to do. "Most enemy chips burned" might be riggable, but also cool. "Most simultaneous battles won" or something, but that's riggable too. It's tough because you can break a lot of things.
BadLion- I'm with Martin as well, I think "most battles won," to force people to be able to fight. However there is a way around it: if you want to, you can set up with neighbors and just go back and forth. But that would be something I'd look at; number of battles won as a stage.
ThatDarnEwok- I like King of the Hill. I think we should go with key provinces like last time, like Bighorn. We had very good fights with our friends [CAZA] on Karelia. I like King of the Hill, and a higher reward for those key provinces.
theonesavior- One I thought would be pretty cool, because it would be such a huge craze and have variety, it'd be hard to rig: the team that has the biggest variety of provinces. Forcing them to jump all over the map would be pretty cool.
watson1002- It's not so much of a campaign, but a strategic thinking, a deeper thinking, would be to not release what's happening. The day before, or six hours, or whatever you can do, release the information then. Because with some of the times that we went into these stages of the campaign, we had plans in place a week before. We were working towards it from the diplo, the tanks, our position on the map. But to go into something almost totally blind.
BadLion- It's like Clan Wars: you never know what to expect. You don't know who's going to chip you that day, you don't know who will attack you, so you can't plan on it. That's kind of what he's getting at. Just make it so nobody knows what's going to happen, it just happens.
watson1002- Otherwise the endgame, like in the last campaign, was already set by the second feature of the campaign. There were a few twists and turns, but not many.
BadLion- The easiest way to put it is that the metagame actually dictated the outcome of the first campaign, for the large part.
Clan Spotlight: _BAD_ 9/16/2013